THERE'S NO SHAME IN SHAME

Look, I kinda resigned a while ago that I wasn't gonna use my blog for socio-political rants any more (Leigh does it much better than I), but with a lot of the things that are happening in America today, I think it's high time we revive a handy little emotional device that used to help keep the country a little more orderly: SHAME.
What got me thinking about this was hearing a news story about a man who is suing his dry cleaner for $65,000,000.00 because they lost his pants (whether this is 100% true or not is moot... we all know that these types of lawsuits happen all the time, so just stay with me here). Isn't this jagoff ashamed of himself for clogging up the judicial system with this nonsense? And shouldn't the judge be a LOT more pissed off that he's spending his time on something this douche-y? Don't some of these lawyers ever think to themselves "Y'know, to take this case would be kinda shameful"?
(on a side-note, Leigh and I were watching 'Fast Times at Ridgemont Hight' the other night, and it made me wish that every judge in America was just like Mr. Hand - but I digress)
Whenever Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan or any of these other celeb-u-tards get wasted and crash their cars into telephone poles, they always release these written-by-professional-spin-doctor statements that say things like "I have learned a lot and I thank my fans for their support." How about saying something like "I was WRONG and I am ASHAMED of my behavior and I WILL take whatever steps necessary to repair whatever damage I've done." You just never get that sense of REMORSE from them. They all need a really solid, healthy dose of shame.
I think our culture has convinced itself that while we may make mistakes, we're under no obligation to feel ashamed of them.
I'm not saying that we should spend the rest of our lives punishing ourselves for our transgressions, but shame is a valuable tool that - if properly used - prevents us from MAKING THE SAME BONEHEADED MISTAKES AGAIN.
Look, I'm as guilty of this as anybody... but as I get older I realize that the resistence to admitting a wrongdoing is really gutless. It takes a LOT more strength to suck it in and say "Ya know, I screwed up... and I'm ashamed of it, and I'm sorry for it" than it does to dodge responsibility and feign righteousness.
I've done lots of things that I'm ashamed of in my life... and, when I'm lucky, the sting of shame prevents me from repeating them or doing equally dumb shit. "Shame" is one of your brain's ways of keeping you from being a total dick.
Take pride in your shame... it's there to help.